A woman playing only her third ever game of bingo has scooped £350,000 after winning Gala's High 5 jackpot.
The 42 year old Brighton-based winner, who has asked not to be named, was only at the bingo hall because she was caring for a regular player.
Her £2.50 winning ticket hit the jackpot when she won the High 5 game, which requires a full house to be hit on the number 5 for a massive payout; the jackpot had risen to £700,000 when she hit it. The rules of the game means that half the jackpot goes to the winning player and the rest is shared between all the other players in that bingo hall. In this case 239 players in the Gala Bingo Hall Brighton, Freshfield Way, won £1,265 each on Wednesday afternoon.
Assistant manager Paul Morgan, 30, told the Brighton Evening Argus: “It was actually quite amazing. Everything went quiet for a minute and then the whole place erupted. The winner was sitting right at the back of the hall and she couldn't move from her seat for about 20 minutes. She was trembling and couldn't talk. We tried to give her a drink but she couldn't pick up the glass.
“She later told us this was only the third time she had ever played bingo.”
Bingo assistant Shaun Willis said: “It was brilliant because she didn't even want to play originally. They kept saying she should play so eventually she did.
“I sat with her for a while after it was called and she was just shaking. She couldn't dial any numbers on her phone so I had to dial her work and family.”
